William a



(No1& Iole1.'\ 4 I .A. NLEMAN. APPARATU H A NG WITH FLUID FUEL. No.464,695, Patented Dec."8, 1891'.

s UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TVILLIAM A. KONEMAN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO THE CHICAGO HEATSTORAGE COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

APPARATUS FOR HEATING WITH FLUID FUEL.y

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 464,695, dated December8, 1891.

Application filed June 2, 1890. ASerial No. 353,996. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. KONEMAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Heating withFluid Fuel,of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide an apparatus for heatingobjectssuch as boilers, drying and annealing furnaces, and the like-withliquid (as hydrocarbon oil) or gaseous fuel, whereby the fuel may bereduced to a condition of complete combustion before its heat isbroughtinto contact with the object to be heated,thereby to enable thedirection against such object of or practically of the mere products ofcombustion in the form of or resembling a blow-pipe flame.

l have employed my invention most extensively with hydrocarbon oil asthe fuel, and have caused by my improvement not only a saving of morethan one-half the quant-ity previously used for the same work, but haveattained the further advantages incidental to complete combustion of thefuel, such as the avoidance of generating smoke. From the descriptionhereinafter contained, however, and which relates, mainly, to the use ofhydrocarbon oil as the fuel employed, it will appear quite obvious thatthe advantages of my invention are equally attainable with the fuelpreviously reduced for consumption to the form of gas.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a view showing my improvedfore-hearth or mixing and combustion chamber in longitudinal sectionalelevation; Fig. 2, a section taken on the line 2 of Fig. l and viewed inthe direction of the arrow; Fig. 3, an enlarged sectional view ofdetails of the apparatus, and Fig. 4 a similar view of a modification ofthe representation in Fig. 3.

A denotes a fore-hearth, (set forth, also, in my pending applicationsserially numbered, respectively, 353,995 and 369,I93 so called for wantof a better term to express its operative position, in front of achamber A', (as the lire-chamber under a boiler, the chamber of anannealing or of a drying furnace, or the like,) in which the effect ofthe heat is to be exerted. l form the fore-hearth A of a rebrick shell,preferably of the exterior angular shape illustrated, and which maytaper toward the exit end,as shown, and the interior of the shell isformed toward its rear end into a mixing and combustion chamber B,extended as a flue C, preferably, as shown, from the upper side and fromabove thevlower side of the chamber to the endof the fore-hearth, theiiue being contracted toward its outlet end, as by tapering it through avertical plane, which is the construction illustrated, though it may beotherwise contracted to produce the desired result hereinafterdescribed.

D is an induction-pipe leading downward into the chamber B at its upperside and communicating from its outer end, as through a hose connectionr, with a supply ot comy bustion-'inducing fluid, as air or steam, theconstruction shown iu Figs. l and 3 being adapted for air, which lsupply by connecting the pipe D with a suitable or ordinary airblower.(Not shown.)

D is the oil or gas supply pipe, leading from the source of fuel-supply,as from the oil-reservoir, (not shown,) to the pipe D, with which itcommunicates through a branch or branches q, each being provided with avalve p to control the feed of the fuel, and for which purpose l employthe needle-valve variety of Valve, the construction of which is wellknown and need not therefore be herein shown and described in detail. Ifsteam be employed with air, I introduce it into the open pipe D througha nozzle c, inserted into the pipe to extend downwardtherein to a pointabove the inlet of the branch or branches q, and the supply of steam iscontrolled through the medium of a suitable IOO gbout at the offset -zat the front of the cham- E is an opening or port in the wall of thestructure, preferably in the side near the top of the chamber B, andextending, by preference, diagonally into the latter, and I provide onesuch opening in each side.

The operation is as follows: Air (with or without steam) is admittedunder pressure through the pipe D into the chamber B, and the oil or gasadmitted through a branch q on opening to the desired extent a Valve j).But one of these valves need be used at a time, the main purpose ofproviding two being to enable the other to afford a reserve for' use incase the iirst should be out of order. The fluid fuel is thus blowndownward into the chamber, wherein it is ignited. Then air (or steam, orboth) is forced into the cha1nber through the opening or openings m, thecurrent thereof intersecting that from the pipe D and forcing thesubstance of the latter downward in the chamber, thereby thoroughlyintermixing, initially, the substances of the two intersecting streams.NVhen combustion has progressed suficiently far, the valve p is openedto admit as much of the liquid fuel as the apparatus will consumecompletely, or approximately so. The tendency of the iiow of the burningfuel, and

which is given additional impetus by the` force of the current emittedfrom the opening or openings m, is toward the outlet end of the flue C,and that of the formed and unconsumed hydrocarbon gas or light Vapor isto occupy the upper strata of the current, and thus tend in an upwarddirection within the latter, owing to the lighter specific gravity ofsuch vapor than that of the air, which will tend to occupy a lowerstratum. The contraction of the flue in a vertical direction toward itsoutlet end tends, however, to retard and further intermix the unconsumedelements of the fuel and air, whereby combustion is forced and theescape and loss of unmixed and hence unconsumed fuel becomes animpossibility so long as suiiicient air is supplied, so that when itreaches the mouth of the flue its consumption'is complete, orapproximately so.

A Very important feature of my improvement is the port or ports E in thefore-hearth,

by means of which, being permanently open and out of the range of theinjector action of the f nel-supply, wherebysuch action does not draw inair through the ports, the amount of fuel which may be consumed by theamount of air injected may be accurately and readily regulated toaccomplish perfect or approximately perfect combustion. The moment thefeed of fuel is greater than the fore-hearth can dispose of (in thesense of effecting its complete combustion) the fact is manifested bythe emission from the port or ports E of the non-consumed fuel in theform of smoke and gas. Thus the port serves as a reliable monitor of thecondition of combustion inside the fore-hearth, and enables waste offuel to be avoided by indicating .the necessity, as soon as it occurs,for regulating the supply.

As will be noticed, the fore-hearth serves merely the purpose ofproducing products ol combustion by reducing the fuel to such condition,and when so reduced they are utilized for imparting their heat to theobject to be heated, whereby practically no valuable portion of the fuelis wasted.

That I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In combination, a chamber A and a forehearth A, comprising a chamberB, into which the fuel-supply with air or steam is injected, andprovided with one or more ports E out of the range of the injectoraction of the fuelsupply, and an intermixing-iiue C, connecting the twochambers and contracted toward the chamber A', substantially asdescribed.

2. In combination, a chamberA and a forehearth A, comprisingr a chamberB, having an intermixing-tlue C, contracted toward its outlet end, atwhich it is connected with the chainber A', air or steam and fiuidfuelsupply pipes leading into the chamber B and directing the fuel-supplytoward the outlet end of the fiue C, and one or more ports E in thefore-hearth out of the range of the injector action of the fuel-supply,substantially as described. v

VILLIAM A. KONEMAN.

In presence 0f- J. W. DYRENFORTH, M. J. FROST.

